Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Jennifer M. Purcell, MA, Department of Adult, Career and Higher Education, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave., EDU 162, Tampa, FL 33620, 813-989-9051, jpurcell@mail.usf.edu and Jane Lundh, MA, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of South Florida, 13201 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., MDC056, Tampa, FL 33612.

Schools of Public Health (SPHs) cannot sustain the national momentum for public health justice and human rights without recruiting, educating, and maintaining a committed public health workforce. Trend data demonstrate that SPHs have shifted away from admitting current public workers. Today's public health students are less likely to be employed in the public health arena prior to entering an MPH program. Instead, many are entering directly from undergraduate programs and represent a variety of disciplines. Unfortunately, the total number of applications to masters and doctoral programs in public health is also decreasing. The proliferation of undergraduate programs in public health is a step in the right direction. However, SPHs must do more to increase their applicant pools. The presenters will share current data related to prospect communication efforts at ASPH accredited institutions and will offer several practical strategies, using a marketing perspective, to increase their prospect pools. Without strategic recruitment plans and implementation, SPHs may not gain access to persons with the background and skills essential to creating the optimal public health workforce of the future - a workforce that is needed to meet the goals of the Institute of Medicine reports and Healthy People 2010.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to

• Summarize current data related to MPH prospect communication and recruitment.
• List strategies to enhance the prospect pool.
• Discuss implications for public health and ASPH institutions.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No